You can read all the details here via Glenn Greenwald. But the short story is that Charlie Rose brokered a deal between News Corp CEO, Rupert Murdoch and GE’s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, to get Olbermann to stop attacking Bill O’Reilly and to get O’Reilly to stop attacking — GE, the friendly folks who bring good things to light, including numerous defense contracts. I wondered why Olbermann suddenly stopped attacking “Billo the Clown” (as he iconically referred to him) back in June. Something about the reasoning didn’t seem right. Well, guess what? It wasn’t. MsNBC, to protect the interests of its corporate parent, told Olbermann to shut up, and Fox did the same to O’Reilly, who suddenly abandoned his reporting on GE’s legitimate sales of energy and medical technology in Iran.
And they wonder why no one trusts the corporate media. It isn’t a liberal bias or a conservative one (except, obviously, Fox News) so much as it’s a corporate bias. And when GE’s CEO was feeling the heat from Bill O’Reilly he put a muzzle on Keith Olbermann. Now, we have no direct link to the so-called deal the New York Times is reporting and any mesage to Olbermann from his bosses to shut down the attacks on o’Reilly, but as Glenn notes, since June 1 of this year, Olbermann has essentially stopped attacking O’Reilly, not once mentioning him by name.
I’d like to see if Olbermann will address The NY Times’ claim that his program has been censored on air Monday night, but I suspect he values his paycheck too much to do so. After all, Donahue was the highest rated show MsNBC had when they canned him for being too outspoken against the coming Iraq War out of fear of being labeled unpatriotic (and possibly causing a “negative impact” on GE’s contractual dealings with the then Bush led Federal Government). Olbermann makes MsNBC money, but GE’s other business interests far outweigh whatever profit Olbermann adds to their corporate bottom line.
It’s just sad to see how far we have fallen from the days when Ed Murrow stood up to Bill Paley and told him he wasn’t going to stop going after Joe McCarthy.
According to the NYT story .. it basically ended because BillO the Clown decided to target Immelt since KO had targeted him(shows more low class on BillO’s part) .. IIRC the story said that BillO put Immelt’s telephone #(I suppose the direct line) and Immelt’s business email address on the air .. so basically .. it is obvious that Immelt get fed up .. and BillO was being a real scumbag(which is the usual thing for him) .. for whatever reason .. BillO the clown couldn’t just leave it as a BillO. vs. KO thing
Makes me feel really secure knowing that a cowardly asshole like Immelt is making millions on contracts to “protect” this country. I wonder what else he’ll sell so the America-haters won’t be mad at him.
We need a 40 percent tax on TV/radio profits, earmarked to support public broadcasting.
Glenn:
Now we know:
Why David Shuster was trying to hush up Charles Pierce about MSNBC’s complicity in creating “American Idiots”
Why Ed Schultz is obligated to have real Republicans when other shows are not obligated to have real Democrats
Why Ed Schultz keeps the radio show he owns going
What can intimidate GE executives (a Brooks Brothers riot, for one)
I KNEW Ed Schultz didn’t trust this situation enough to keep the seat warm in Fargo.
But last night I thought I would see Olbermann, and then I saw this grey-haired British shrimp posing in Keith’s chair. I turned it off. To me, Olbermann IS his show, and the only one who’s been able to keep my attention while Keith’s been on vacation is Rachel Maddow.
I swear, who died and made Charlie Rose referee?
I wondered why Olbermann suddenly stopped attacking “Billo the Clown” (as he iconically referred to him) back in June.
On June 1st, the day after Tiller, the abortion doctor, was killed, Olbermann called out O’Reilly’s crusade against the man and personally blamed him for inciting the doctor’s death. KO said then that he would never again use Bill O’s name or refer to his program, that he would “shun” him and hoped that all other “decent people” would do the same. At the time, it made sense that KO would declare that Bill O had “simply ceased to exist” as far as he was concerned. Now, if this was an elaborate cover for being told to STFU about O’Reilly, KO complied by taking one last dramatic stab…
O, duh, I’ll read the link first next time.
It’s sad to see the man currently most responsible for societies devolution, victorious in suppressing and devaluing truth, tho Immelt lasted longer than I expected. Rupert Murdoch ,with very few challengers, is the most evil man on earth, by creating the conservative/republican sensationalist propaganda media and harboring and enabling the wild animals that make up this zoo. His organizations hate humane behavior (empathy, sharing, agape, truth, helping, ETC.) and love Satanic behavior (racism, greed, lying as a job skill, torture, war crime mass murder, stealing from the poor, Etc.) In money and 3 year old level selfishness they trust. A great tribulation will result. KO was a huge breath of fresh breathable air, but due to our societies corruption, Rupert and others success, even KO, is now tainted by Rupert’s demonic stench.
By the way, did Rupiss actually take, by himself, and pass the U.S. citizenship test? Reverse birther moment: pass, never, deport him now!
Today, Joe McCarthy would replace Murrow with his own show.
Now there is no reason to watch Keith. I loved it when he skewered O’Reilly. Keith should quit MSNBC, and take a job on the radio.
Oh well, at least he still has Limbaugh to go after.